In low-voltage switching devices with a manual control button, i.e., having a manually operated element for closing the switched contacts and establishing a conductive current path via the switching device, it is usual that there is a movable switched contact, which is connected mechanically to the manual control button, and which, as the manual control button is actuated, is continually moved closer to a housing-mounted switched contact until both the switched contacts are connected mechanically. The opening of the contact, i.e., the switching-off of the switching device, takes place in accordance with the movement of the corresponding manual control button in the corresponding direction, which results in a continuous disconnection of the contacts. There exists a possibility that a user can maintain the manual control button in an arbitrary intermediate position, keeping the contacts in a correspondingly intermediate position.
If the switching device in question is under electric potential, at a certain distance between the closing switched contacts, an electric arc can be produced. With sufficiently low voltage and with users of electricity that require only small amounts of current to be conducted via the switching device, no problem is generally created as a result.
At higher voltages and currents, e.g., 600 V and 100 A, such an electric arc, which occurs because of an excessively slow manual separation of the contacts, can lead to significant damage to the affected switching device. If there is an accordingly high current flowing via the switching device in question when the disconnection takes place, the slow manual opening of the contacts can lead to an electric arc that can lead not only to a complete loss of the switching device in question, but also to a fire.
There are known devices with a so-called jump switch-off function. With it, the switched contacts are separated rapidly when disconnecting manually, independently of the manner and speed with which the operator actuates the manual control button. However, such jump switch-off functions are common primarily in the field of very large circuit breakers, such as those used in electric substations. Such switching devices have separately charged spring-loaded accumulators, which are used when opening or closing the contacts, wherein the use of this technology in compact switching devices is hardly possible, since an integration of the necessary components is not possible in the correspondingly compact housings.